Tuesday, April 16, 2024

Bug Banter by bugeyed Bernie

Ask the Inverter,

An open discussion with inverters about invertebrate life.

Clothesline chat with a miner bee (?)

Dear Bug Eyed Bernie,

"Am I anthropomorphizing? It looks downright intelligent."

Sally Seeking Knowledge about Life

Sally Seeking Knowledge about Life,

There is, of course, a risk of anthropomorphizing as it is in our ancient history to want to relate to animals through our eyes of the world. Still, science informs us that bees and other insects have far more capabilities than scientists thought even twenty years ago. Even though we know some of their abilities, their senses are very different than ours, and their needs on how to perceive the world are different than ours.

Still, when I was taking photos of this alert animal, over twelve minutes, I could not help but think it was observing me and thinking - what - about me? Since it stayed in place with me jostling about very close to it (within a foot) I must deduce it did not view me as an immediate threat. But aware it was. When I ducked under the clothesline to take a photo from the other end of its body, it turned to again face me. When I tried to get on one side of it, again it turned to face me. Though sometimes not immediately.

The more we can learn about what animals can sense, and how they sense inputs, I expect the more we will appreciate all life forms. I recently read how our bodies rely on not only bacteria but fungi as well. It seems even humans are not just a single entity but instead a boat of organisms or an ecological interdependent set of organisms.

Some scientists believe that bees are sentient, and have feelings. As far as intelligence - I believe the bee is intelligent - if you measure intelligence by the ability to learn and adapt within one's perceived environment and within the senses that one's body entails.

Lars Chittka in "The Mind of a Bee" writes, "...in bees just as in humans, instincts interface seamlessly with memory and cognition. Instinctive predispositions promote learning ability, and intelligence behavior can emerge from evolved innate behavior."

Perhaps wild bees are smarter than average! All humbling, and worthy of much more observation and discovery.

Bug Eyed Bernie

What's your inverting question?

Write it on the comment section of VT Bug Eyed

View more photos of this lovely creature on my iNaturalist post.

View all of my latest LIFE observations on iNaturalist.

Thursday, April 4, 2024

Bee on the Lookout for VT Bees in April

Here are photos of a few of the many bee species that you might see in Vermont in April.

Recognize any of the faces? The fifth one down might have played in a band in the 70's!

Photos courtesy of USGS Bee Inventory and Monitoring Lab.

Andrena arabis, m, face. A specialist in early spring blooming brassicas.

Here is the male Andrena arabis. The male illustrates what happens periodically with some of the males of this largely brown, dark group of mining bees which is that a few of them have a yellow, or in this case an off-white, clypeus. Surely this must be some sort of sexual signal as the females almost never have these markings. - USGS Bee Inventory and Monitoring Lab.

Solitary bee. Ground nesters, some will nest in lawns. Oligolectic: Brassicaceae family. A specialist on the mustard family. Its specific plant preferences seem uncertain currently and have been found on both native ephemerals (i.e. Toothwort) and non-native, weedy Brassicaceae. No cocoon formed. Overwinters as adult. Stage of diapause: prepupa. NA native. Females collect pollen on the hind leg and side of the thorax. Common name Mustard miner bee. Excerpts from Bernie's VBSA (VT bee species accounts).

Andrena, carlini, m, face

Of the woodland-oriented bees, this is regionally the most common one, Andrena carlni, this male is relatively easy to tell because of the black hairs that line the edges of the eyes and the ocelli [three small eyes] that are set back from the back of the head. - USGS Bee Inventory and Monitoring Lab.

Solitary bee. About 15-27 cm. Polylectic. Male A. carlini are unique among male Melandrena for the black hairs on the inner margin of the eyes. Single nests are sometimes found within aggregations of other spring-active species like Colletes inaequalis. Known to nest gregariously on hard-packed ground in forested areas and blueberry barrens. Nesting appears to benefit from frequent burning of blueberry barrens for cultivation. Nests may have large tumuli and are left open during foraging bouts. Nests singly with nests often found far from one another. Burrow entrances may or may not be obscured by vegetation. Excerpts from Bernie's VBSA (VT bee species accounts).

Lasioglossum coeruleum, F, Face

Such a lovely blue and relatively unusual in the Genus Lasioglossum. At least in the East, there is no other Lasioglossum so extensively and uniformly blue. So blue that it is often mistaken for an Osmia. This species is associated with woodlands, feeding on the vernal flora of the woods and nearby fields and nesting in rotten wood. - USGS Bee Inventory and Monitoring Lab.

Eusocial. Forms primitively eusocial colonies. Polylectic. Unlike most other nest-building Dialictus, this species nests in rotting wood. Short tongue. Excerpts from Bernie's VBSA (VT bee species accounts).

Osmia lignaria, F, Back Ah, what a lovely ethereal composition. This is the male of the Blue Orchard Bee, studied for its use in orchards as a pollinator.

Another native bee that has a strong showing in April in Vermont.

The classic Blue Orchard Bee, that many gardeners make nests for by drilling blocks of wood or buying little houses or straws. All well and good except for the fact that 2 recent Asian Osmia species are now starting to dominate populations in both urban and rural areas. O. taurus and O. cornifrons. We will see what happens to our native as the invasives become more numerous. - USGS Bee Inventory and Monitoring Lab.

Five instars. Nests in natural holes and reeds creating individual cells for its brood that are separated by mud dividers. Polylectic. The average foraging range is 600 meters. Osmia lignaria - takes between 15 and 35 trips to gather enough pollen for just one egg. Approximately 75 flower visits each trip for a total of 1875 flower visits for just one egg. Each female BOB (Blue orchard bee) lives about twenty days as an adult, and by the end of that time, she’s moving slowly, her hair worn off and her wings tattered. - Excerpts from Bernie's VBSA (VT bee species accounts).

Andrena nasonii, F, face. Hey, I think this guy played guitar in a band back in the '70s...

Each of the the bee names above is linked to the USGS photos where you can view the full body and multiple photos.

The phenology chart below highlights the months each bee species was observed in Vermont as recorded by the Vermont Atlas of Life (VT Center for Ecostudies) as of March 31, 2024.

The bold 'X' indicates the month with the highest number of recorded observations for the species.

Each species is linked to the VAL page (see the last column on the right.)

Each species' name (first column) is linked to its iNaturalist information page.

TAXON

VATIONS

BINOMIAL Name

O10

N11

D12

VT VAL Records as of Mar 2023

VT ATLAS OF LIFE Species Profile

Agapostemon sericeus

365

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